History Characters / Warhammer40000TauEmpire

* {{Retcon}}: Downplayed due to having an in-universe explanation that the Demiurge being a separate species from the squats was an in-universe mistake. Originally the Demiurg were officially a separate species from the Squats, with one of Warhammer 40k's original designers even stating in an interview that they were created to be a more serious take on the space dwarf concept than the Squats were. When the Squats were re-introduced into the setting as the League of Votann, the Demiurge were then stated to have been offshoot leagues of Votann, albeit significantly mutated ones which is the explanation for why they were mistaken to be a separate species all this time.

* LongRangeFighter: To the point of CripplingOverspecialization, but damn if they are not good at it. Only the Imperial Guard and the Orks can put out [[BeamSpam more]] [[MoreDakka shots]], but the T'au hit more powerfully and, with the aid of markerlights, more accurately. Because they suck at close combat, the T'au rely primarily on the Kroot to go up close.

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** While the T'au have no direct analogue to human marriages (the closest they come to is the [[BloodBrothers Bonding Ceremony]] which involves a mix-gender group of several partners and is a [[TrueCompanions non-sexual agápe relationship]]) they do have arranged ''breeding'', with breeding couples being summoned by a "Procreation Committee" to spend a day together attempting to conceive, after which they go their separate ways. All child-rearing is done in educational/nursing facilities by professional instructors of the matching caste. However, it is not unusual for a parent to take an interest in their offspring's development and occasionally visit them, though the onus of raising the child is on the instructors rather than the parent, and T'au society places more importance on chosen family via the Ta'lissera rather than blood relation.

* BloodBrothers: While the Ta'lissera is common to all T'au castes, among the Fire Caste this takes the form of ritual self-mutilation and blood-mingling, carving bonding symbols into their chests, with the knives they used to do so kept as a symbol of that bond.

* OrnamentalWeapon: T'au Bonding Knives carried by Fire Warrior team leaders. These are ceremonial blades, meant to mark the team as [[BloodBrothers bonded by the Ta'lissera ritual]], and it would be highly improper to actually use such a sacred knife on one's enemies. Its presence is more to remind the team of their bonds to one another, helping them rally through even the worst of conditions.

* TrueCompanions: Fire Warrior squads sometimes undergo a ritualistic [[BloodBrothers blood-mingling ceremony]], which translates into improved morale on the tabletop.

* Retcon: Downplayed due to having an in-universe explanation that the Demiurge being a separate species from the squats was an in-universe mistake. Originally the Demiurg were officially a separate species from the Squats, with one of Warhammer 40k's original designers even stating in an interview that they were created to be a more serious take on the space dwarf concept than the Squats were. When the Squats were re-introduced into the setting as the League of Votann, the Demiurge were then stated to have been offshoot leagues of Votann, albeit significantly mutated ones which is the explanation for why they were mistaken to be a separate species all this time.

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'''[[Characters/Warhammer40000ForcesOfChaos Forces of Chaos]]:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000ChaosGods Chaos Gods]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000ChaosPrimarchs Chaos Primarchs]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000ChaosMarines Heretic Astartes]]\\

* AntiMagic: The strange relics that Farsight's forces found on the artefact world of Arthas Moloch seem to provide protection from the unscientific powers used by many of the galexy's races. The 8th Edition rules for the Talisman of Arthas Moloch enables the bearer to [[CounterSpell deny]] and enemy psychic power.

'''[[Characters/Warhammer40000Imperium Imperium of Man]]:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialFounders Founders]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Astartes Adeptus Astartes]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesChaptersFirstFounding First Founding Chapters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesChapters Other Chapters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesCharacters Characters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000PrimarisSpaceMarines Primaris Marines]]), [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialGuard Astra Militarum]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Sororitas Adepta Sororitas]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Inquisition Inquisition]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Mechanicus Mechanicus]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000CurrentImperialFactions Other factions]]\\

'''[[Characters/Warhammer40000XenoRaces Xeno Races]]:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000Eldar Aeldari]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000CraftworldEldar Asuryani]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000DarkEldar Drukhari]]) | [[Characters/Warhammer40000LeaguesOfVotann Leagues of Votann]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Necrons Necrons]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Orks Orks]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000OrksCharacters Characters]]) | '''T'au Empire''' | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Tyranids Tyranids]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000GenestealerCults Genestealer Cults]])]]-]]]

The third student of the legendary Commander Puretide, Kais was a loner who was considered highly odd by his peers. Kais' area of expertise was in the Monat doctrine, a style of warfare that focuses on individual skill and achieving victory with limited resources. As with Pruetide's other most talented students, Krais was placed in cryogenic stasis to preserve the great Commander's legacy for future generations. When he was finally revived, however, it was discovered that a fault in Krais' stasis pod had resulted in him remaining conscious throughout his period of suspended animation, only retaining a loose hold of his sanity by constantly imagining and perfecting his way of war against every enemy ever faced by his kind. Deemed unfit to be a figurehead in the same way his fellow students had been used by the Ethereals, Kais became known in whispered tones as Tha'hasiro -- the Living Weapon, to be unleashed only in the direst of circumstances.

* AlienBlood: Due to high levels of cobalt, T'au blood is blue, and according to at least [[Literature/CiaphasCain one inquisitor]], smells awful.

* NotInThisForYourRevolution: The Kroot do not make much effort to hide that their embrace of the Greater Good is tenuous at best. They are part of the T'au Empire for the betterment of the Kroot, by giving them opportunities to change, adapt, grow, and survive in a hostile galaxy. The T'au keep insisting that the Kroot will embrace the cause of the Greater Good with time, and the Kroot are content to let them go on thinking that.

* {{Foil}}: The T'au were deliberately designed by Creator/GamesWorkshop to be a contrast with other armies. They are optimistic, idealistic, dynamic, outreaching, and hopeful, in contrast to most everyone else who is pessimistic, cynical, stagnant, xenophobic, and in decline. Their fighting style is likewise a contrast: where most armies fight like {{Fantasy Counterpart Culture}}s of historical armies, the T'au fight more like a modern high-tech one. Finally, they're even the opposites in terms of aesthetics. Imperial equipment and architecture tend to be baroque and lavishly decorated. Chaos Architecture is both alive, gruesome and spikey. Orks decorate all their homes with a crude mimicry of trophies and symbols, and both the Eldar and their dark kin share the design aesthetics of their Imperial counterparts. The T'au? Functional design and simplicity. If it's unneeded, it's coming off the wall.

* MirroringFactions:
** Expect this trope to come up in any story with interaction between the T'au and the Imperium. Each side convinced of its own virtue and the wrongness of the other, each one holding its adherents up to an impossible ideal. Some characters will even bring this up, though the tone will shift depending on who says it and why. T'au will often use it as a HannibalLecture about how it would not be a large step for a human to accept the Greater Good. Humans by contrast will use this in a HannibalLecture of their own, cynically explaining that the T'au are no better than the Imperials, the Imperials just admit their darkness more freely than the T'au.

* AscendedExtra: The first appearance of the Kroot was as a small drawing of a "Kroot Warrior" among a group of other miscellaneous minor xenos in an art spread within the third edition core rulebook. This actually pre-dates the introduction of the T'au, who only became part of the setting late in the third edition's life cycle. That single image was greatly expanded upon to create an allied race for the T'au, both to fill a tactical niche in their force composition and to show their willingness to ally with others. The Kroot were picked for this role because of [[{{Foil}} how well they contrasted with the T'au]].

* {{Foil}}: Games Workshop included the Kroot in the T'au army list because of how their "savage" appearance and fighting style contrasted with the clean, high-tech, {{Animesque}} style of the T'au. Their mercenary culture and healthy skepticism for the Greater Good is also a contrast to the T'au. Think of them as the Sancho Panza to the T'au's Literature/DonQuixote.

'''[[Characters/Warhammer40000XenoRaces Xeno Races]]:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000Eldar Aeldari]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000CraftworldEldar Asuryani]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000DarkEldar Drukhari]]) | [[Characters/Warhammer40000LeaguesOfVotann Leagues of Votann]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Necrons Necrons]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Orks Orks]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000OrksCharacters Characters]]) | '''T'au Empire''' | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Tyranids Tyranids]]]]-]]]

* AceCustom: All T'au Battlesuits are customizable to some degree, but the XV-8-05 Enforcer suit available to [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking Commanders]] is the absolute king of custom loadouts courtesy of an astonishing bevvy of weapons and subsystems. This, by its very nature, encourages the creation of [[CastOfSnowflakes numerous unique and specialized units.]]

* SuperPrototype: [[spoiler: The ending of ''War of Secrets'' hints that Kais, whether intentionally or not, has become a template for the T'au's own brand of SuperSoldier project.]]

* AmbiguousInnocence: A continuing thread in all accounts of T'au'va is that despite her benevolence and her affirmation that she simply wishes to exist, those who witness her sense some form of malice, in particular Twiceblade's note of feeling 'a hunger to grow'. Whether this is simply the T'au reacting negatively to their unwanted deity remains to be seen.
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Of the Greater Good itself.
* DeityOfMortalCreation: Created by the combined faith of the Empire's auxiliary races.
* TheFaceless: Described as having 'a blank and impassive mask'.

* MultiArmedAndDangerous: She possesses many arms belonging to many different species and wielding many different implements, reminiscent of Hindu and Buddhist depictions, and she's powerful enough to both liberate the entire Fourth Sphere Expansion fleet from the Warp as well as becalm and strand the Death Guard within it.

In truth, the Demiurg are actually members of The Leagues of Votann, also known as the "Squats", descendants of early human space colonists who evolved to be shorter and more muscular than ordinary humans from generations of living on high gravity planets near the mineral-dense galactic core. They have simply been misidentified as xenos due to having speciated further away from baseline humanity than most Squats, developing grey, stony-looking skin and other odd features.

* SpaceRomans: The T'au culture is a pastiche of various Eastern philosophies and civilizations. Also, an important but often overlooked inspiration for the T'au is that of UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE]]! A small "island" nation which expands outward, claiming territory, absorbing indigenous populations as best they can, laying down infrastructure and spreading their culture where ever they go, and having an influence far in excess of their own modest numbers.

'''[[Characters/Warhammer40000Imperium Imperium of Man]]:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialFounders Founders]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Astartes Adeptus Astartes]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesChapters Chapters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesChaptersFirstFounding Chapters of the First Founding]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesCharacters Characters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000PrimarisSpaceMarines Primaris Marines]]), [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialGuard Astra Militarum]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Sororitas Adepta Sororitas]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Inquisition Inquisition]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Mechanicus Mechanicus]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000CurrentImperialFactions Other factions]]\\

'''[[Characters/Warhammer40000Imperium Imperium of Man]]:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialFounders Founders]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Astartes Adeptus Astartes]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesChapters Chapters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesCharacters Characters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000PrimarisSpaceMarines Primaris Marines]]), [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialGuard Astra Militarum]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Sororitas Adepta Sororitas]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Inquisition Inquisition]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Mechanicus Mechanicus]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000CurrentImperialFactions Other factions]]\\